Black and White and Thin Blue Lines

Send a text Join summer intern and law clerk Lauren Pountnay, Serge Antonin, and Clarke Ahlers as they veer off the beaten path of criminal justice issues to discuss something that everybody is talking about: the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution.  This isn't a political diatribe. One (or maybe two) of the hosts make reference to apparent shortfalls of President Biden. Still, t...

Send a text Say her name: Rachel Morin. On August 5th, 2023, Rachel -- a mother of five -- was murdered while exercising on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Hartford County, Maryland. Rachel's family turned to Maryland attorney Randolph Rice, the managing partner of Rice, Murtha & Psoras for assistance. In today's episode, Randolph Rice describes the efforts he and Morin family made...

Send a text Join Serge and Clarke and special guest Lauren Pountnay for this podcast about the Hunter Biden trial. Lauren is a rising senior at N.C. State. She is Clarke's intern/law clerk for the summer of 2024. Lauren and Clarke attended one day of the Hunter Biden trial in Delaware and are interviewed by Serge about the trial. If you follow this podcast, you may be surprised at Clarke&apos...

Send a text In this episode, Serge and Clarke discuss a video of Sean "Diddy" Combs assaulting Cassandra "Cassie" Ventura in the hallway of the L.A. InterContinental Hotel in 2016 as well as the recent Homeland Security search warrant raids on Diddy owned properties in Los Angeles and Miami. Clarke offers Diddy's team some legal advice. Serge disagrees. In the second porti...

Send a text Serge and Clarke begin Season IV with a discussion of the tragic shooting death of a United States Airman in his own home by a Deputy Sheriff in Okaloosa, Florida. Then Serge and Clarke discuss the efforts of Marilyn Mosby and her supporters, including the NAACP, to have the President of the United States pardon her before her sentencing in federal court. Clarke is okay with it; Serge...

Send a text In Baltimore County, Maryland a man has been arrested and accused of creating and publishing a recording that purported to be a high school principal making offensive racial remarks to the vice-principal. This is the new world of artificial intelligence and is the topic of a discussion between Serge and Clarke. Be assured: this episode is a genuine Black and White and Thin Blue Lines p...

Send a text In part 2 of the podcast, Kenny Somers reflects on the arrest, his incarceration, and his thoughts on the past and future of Baltimore. 

Send a text Imagine the following story. "John Doe" steals a car -- or more accurately, John Doe steals the same car two times. The car owner, Kenny Somers, a professional automobile recycler, recovers the car the first time and attempts to recover the car a second time. But John Doe has other plans and tries to kill Kenny Somers. Somers fights back and prevails. Police are called. While...

Send a text Serge and Clarke comment in the murder of Ofc. Diller and update the listeners on renewed efforts on the Columbia Project. Worth a listen. 

Send a text Join Serge and Clarke as they share Nathan Steelman's experience sitting as a juror in judgment of a woman charged with domestic violence in Florida.  You have heard the expression "I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6." (Clarke disagrees: he would rather be carried by six than judged by 12).  But as you will learn, that expression doesn't work in Manat...

Send a text Serge and Clarke celebrate Easter. We have friends who have a blessed Ramadan. We have friends who we will wish Happy Passover in several weeks. We have re-uploaded an episode. We will be back next week with a brand new episode. In rural New York, a 65-year old man fired two shots from his porch killing a young woman in a car who was lost and turned around in his driveway. In Missouri,...

Send a text Law Enforcement firearms training has historically emphasized reaction time and marksmanship. But the decision to shoot or don't shoot is the most fundamental choice  the police officer faces in highly stressful situations. For the most part, civilians (who sit in judgment of the police) have not had large scale access to simulator training. In this week's episode, join Serge...

Send a text At the request of a listener, Serge and Clarke offer their advice to young people without law enforcement experience who wish to apply to become police officers. People: this is solid advice from two men who have been there.

Send a text February 1, 2024 -- Prince George's County, Maryland. Prince George's County Police Officer Braxton Shelton is dispatched to a burglary in progress at an apartment in Suitland. He arrives within a minute of the dispatch, finds the apartment door ajar, and enters by himself. Seven seconds later Shelton fires one shot killing Melvin Jay, who almost certainly was lawfully in the...

Send a text What is worse than a plethora of undereducated, jobless, and unfocused young men with semi-automatic handguns shooting at each other in cities across America? Answer: A group of undereducated, jobless, and unfocused young men with machine-guns shooting at each other in cities across America. Welcome to the $50 "Glock switch." This small, inexpensive, and easily obtained part...

Send a text There IS something new under the sun! Tom Mauriello, the mastermind of FORENSIQ, has organized decades of law enforcement expertise in a CSI phone app that is exceptional, affordable, and practical. Any criminal justice stakeholder can access an investigative blueprint for every type of investigation from arson to mass casualty event. In this episode of Black and White and Thin Blue Li...

Send a text The Black and White and Thin Blue Lines podcast began in spring of 2021 as the effort of Serge Antonin and Clarke Ahlers. The podcast concerns itself with issues of criminal justice, particularly at the intersection of race in America. Since then, Serge and Clarke have learned the technology of podcasting, produced and edited 100 episodes (to date), met wonderful guests and enjoyed the...

Send a text The Maryland General Assembly proposes an excise tax on the sale of guns and ammunition, the Howard County Council debates a ceasefire in Gaza, and several state senators propose to eliminate good time credits for a very small number of convicted felons. Is our government fiddling while our community burns? Serge and Clarke add their two cents in the latest episode. 

Send a text Dateline Harlem: Friday night January 26, 2024 about 6:30 P.M.  A NY City police officer stops city councilman Yosef Salaam for unlawful tinted windows on a BMW sedan. The officer was polite and professional and sent Mr. Salaam on his way after Salaam, the driver, identified himself as a city councilman. Professional courtesy? Presumably so. After all, why else would Mr. Salaam identif...

Send a text In 1968, Graham Nash, later of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, wrote a song about the difficult relationship he had with his father who was sent to jail for receiving stolen goods. The song “Teach Your Children” has beautiful lyrics including this stanza: “Teach your children well, Their father’s hell did slowly go by, Feed them on your dreams, The one they pick’s the one you’ll know...

Send a text On the afternoon of January 10, 2024, more than 20 police officers in tactical gear carrying long arms and deploying flash bangs served a search warrant in Elyria, Ohio. Sure ... the usual stuff. You know. The guy the police were looking for hadn't lived at the residence the cops trashed for more than a year. Oh, and there was another hiccup. It seems the police deployed a flash b...

Send a text Serge often observes that America is declining into anarchy. Clarke is sometimes pessimistic. Serge and Clarke bring their inclinations to the story of a young man who jumped the bench in a Las Vegas courtroom and beat up the judge who was sentencing him to prison for beating up a person with a baseball bat. What the heck is in the water in this country? Also, New York Governor declare...

Send a text Almost six decades after the United States Supreme Court's landmark Miranda decision, police administrators in Maryland are claiming that a 2022 Maryland law that requires police adhere to Miranda during juvenile arrests is making their job more difficult. In a now familiar whine, our state and local governments blame their inability to fight crime on a document designed to protec...

Send a text Police Commissioner Worley has implemented 8 hours of empathy instruction for every Baltimore Police Officer. In this episode, Serge and Clarke discuss the instruction. Serge begins with the valid premise that it is a good idea for victims of trauma -- like most police officers and many Baltimoreans--to learn understanding. On his part, Clarke is a bit more "Doctor, Heal Thyself.&...

Send a text This week, the Mayor of Baltimore filed suit in federal court against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It turns out that ATF sends gun trace information to the Police Commissioner but does not send the same information to the Mayor. Rather than figure a workaround, the Mayor -- represented by Everytown Law -- filed suit. The lawsuit is largely a press release in...